Best journalism...saddest tale.

This is a discussion on Best journalism...saddest tale. within the General Discussions forums, part of the Community Boards category; When that whole Waco thing erupted back in the 90's, I really just wrote it off like most everyone else. ...

Best journalism...saddest tale.

When that whole Waco thing erupted back in the 90's, I really just wrote it off like most everyone else. To be sure, their "leader", I guess you would say, acted selfishly by keeping children and other innocents in harms way. But what I didn't know was that he probably wasn't even guilty of taking their lives. Media reports had made it out like another Jonestown, actually, and up until now I hadn't even thought twice about it. Well, I'll let you decide. Very sad story. May they all rest in peace.

I just watched Waco: The Rules of Engagement on Netflix a couple
weeks ago. An amazing documentary about the incident. It was
nominated for an Oscar.

The government totally F'ed that thing up; the media was horrible,
too; portraying the Branch Davidians as a bunch of crazies. It's a
very sad story. Especially hearing about what the gas did to the
children.

From its inception in 1930, the reform movement inherited Adventism's apocalypticism, in that they believed themselves to be living in a time when Bible prophecies of a final divine judgment were coming to pass as a prelude to Christ's second coming.

I long time ago I read a book by a biblical scholar* that the FBI used (he volunteered his services the day he heard about the event, after listening to a negotiator/Koresh phone call on CNN) in the preliminary negotiations with Koresh. I am pretty sure this is it:

Tabor actually met with Koresh after talking to him on the FBI phone, because Koresh said Tabor understood him whereas the other FBI negotiators did not (so the FBI let him do it, since he said that would be exactly what would happen). At their meeting, Koresh gave him his magnum opus in progress, an unfinished manuscript on the Seven Seals, and the entire thing is published in the book. I'm not religious, but I would still agree with Tabor that there is nothing particularly crazy about it or Koresh, comparatively speaking, and that it was the FBI's complete lack of expertise (or interest) in dealing with Christian cults that led to the problem.

When the ATF used CX nerve gas on all those little kids and their bodies were found with their backs broken from the resulting muscle spasms -- wow, that must have been a great day in the history of American "law enforcement". I bet those guys are still out there "enforcing the law". They probably even got medals. Who are the real sociopaths?